SPICE, a first mover as a premium dining platform in MENA, emerged from stealth today to announce its launch, marking a major shift in how restaurants access growth capital and how diners discover and experience the region’s best dining venues.
Founded by industry veterans Zeid Husban, Wadi Hawi, and Yousef Sawalha—the entrepreneurs who built and exited ifood.jo to Delivery Hero (2016) and POSRocket to Foodics (2022)—SPICE represents their third venture in the restaurant-tech space and their boldest yet.
“We’ve spent over 15 years building technology for restaurants,” said Zeid Husban, Co-founder and CEO of SPICE. “This time, we’re transforming the economics of how restaurants grow and redefining how they’re financed. We’re building the top-of-mind destination for dining out—a platform that owns the entire journey from discovery to experience.”
Redefining restaurant growth
SPICE introduces a new category to the region: Dining Capital. This innovative model provides upfront growth capital to restaurants with no debt, no equity, and no repayments. It’s paired with a premium dining app that drives high-value diners to partner venues while enabling discovery of curated restaurants, simple reservations, personalised experiences, and exclusive rewards.
This is the first model of its kind in the region, aligning incentives across all stakeholders while delivering superior returns compared to both traditional financing and conventional marketing.
“Restaurants need a partner who shares their risk and success,” added Husban. “SPICE delivers capital designed to scale naturally and sustainably with their business. Restaurants grow faster, stay independent, and build lasting relationships while diners enjoy premium experiences and earn rewards.”
Built by operators, for operators
Having spent over a decade working alongside thousands of restaurants across the region, the SPICE team deeply understands the realities of the industry. The founders combine extensive expertise and a shared belief that hospitality is both art and business.
“Only SPICE could build this, because we’ve lived it,” said Wadi Hawi, Co-founder and COO of SPICE. “We’ve seen the highs, the struggles, and the passion behind every great restaurant. This is our way of giving back to the industry that shaped us.”
At the product level, SPICE’s CTO, Yousef Sawalha, is using AI and human intuition to reimagine the dine-out experience, creating a premium dining app that feels personal, local, and seamlessly aligned with how people dine and connect.
“Dining today is emotion, expression, and culture,” said Sawalha. “SPICE understands this. The app learns your preferences and adapts to context, making every choice feel intuitive and every experience more rewarding.”
A new chapter begins in Saudi Arabia
The founders chose Saudi Arabia as SPICE’s first market, recognising it as one of the region’s most rapidly evolving markets—a country embracing innovation, creativity, and investment at remarkable speed.
“Saudi is leading the region’s next wave of hospitality growth,” said Husban. “I came back because I believed in this market and admired its people, their ambition, generosity, and belief that great things can be built here.”
SPICE has secured backing from leading regional hospitality and tech investors who share the vision of transforming restaurant economics across the MENA region. The company will announce its founding restaurant partners in early 2026 as the platform scales across Riyadh’s upscale dining scene.
Restaurant partnerships are opening across Riyadh and the broader Saudi market, with plans to extend to the UAE, the rest of the GCC, and Europe within the next two years. The SPICE app is launching with invite-only access.
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